Where do I start? How amazing to hear from you !!!

I definitely am a relative, but have not figured out just what.  I received a phone call from Paul Powers a few days ago and was so surprised. 

 

In May my husband, Gary, and I took a trip (my first trip to Europe) with former neighbors of ours.  Ed was born in Slovenia, spoke the language and visits Bled annually so we went along with him and his wife, Chris.  I took along very old documents from my father's side of the family with language I couldn't read, hoping that someone there could help me.  I knew that one grandparent was from Novi Sad.  One night we sat in a restaurant with the papers I brought and a relative of Ed's who could read most of the words.  That night I learned a few new things about my family.

 

Paul E-mailed to me a photo, and when it came out of the printer, it was quite a shock.  I am sitting here looking at the same original photo, which I found recently when looking through my grandparent's old photos and it was one I have known of since I was a child.  I am the little blonde in the photo.

 

 

On the ground is my father, John Buchko.  Behind him is my grandmother, Mary Paroskai Buchko.  I don't know the man next to her.  My mother, Ivadell Milburn Buchko is behind me.  My grandfather, Andrew Buchko is standing next to her.  The picture is not dated, but 1948 is probably pretty close.  October 12, 1948 my brother, John, was born, so it couldn't have been taken then.  I was 3 1/2 when he was born.

 

I always thought my grandparent's were Russian.  I called her "Baba" and called him "Dodo."  I was told that I couldn't pronounce the Russian for Grandfather -- that it came out Dodo, so that was what we always called him.

 

I have also in front of me my baby book.  First, I guess I should tell you a bit about me.  As my name has changed a few times, I am amazed that I was found.  I was born in Cleveland, Ohio, on February 5, 1945, making me just shy of 60 yrs. old, an age I find difficult to believe.  I didn't marry until I was about 36, when I became Ivadell Ballantyne.  My husband died 7 years later and in 1995 I married Gary Candow.

I had a brother, John Buchko (lots of John's & Ivadell's in my family).  He died in 1997.  Of course, grandparents and parents are also gone.  Neither my brother nor I elected to have children, so I am the end of this particular branch.

 

 

I will construct a family tree going back as far as I know -- from my baby book.  This is on my Dad's side.

 

Father:  John Buchko

Grandparents:  Mary Paroskai Buchko & Andrew Buchko

Great grandmothers:  Julia Andrechek Paroskai & Anna Nagy Buchko

Great grandfathers:  John Paroskai & John Buchko

 

 

 

 

I know that my grandmother had three sisters I vaguely remember as a very young child. 

 

            

 

Juli (Paroskai) Sherbula & Nikola Sherbula, Helen (Paroskai) Bucko & John Bucko, Anna (Paroskai) Donaldy & Frank  Donaldy , Mary (Paroskai) Buchko & Andrew Buchko

 

When my grandparents, Mary and Andrew, celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary, my father gathered information about them, had a reporter come to their home and interview them, and they had their pictures in the paper and a nice article written.  I will find it and get it to you if you would like.  We also had a document drawn up -- Resolution No. 1389-73 by the Cleveland Mayor and City Council congratulating them on their 60th anniversary.  I have it framed.   It states that Andrew was born in Vukovar, Srem, Yugoslavia, in 1890 and my grandmother, Mary, was born in Novi Sad, Yugoslavia, in 1895.  After coming to the U.S. my grandfather worked in various steel mills.  In 1923 he opened one of several grocery and delicatessen stores.  In 1941 he became packing and shipping clerk at Fullwell Motor Products Company, where he worked until he retired in 1958.  Both of them were founders of St. Michael's Russian Orthodox Church.  My documents state that they were married July 5, 1913 when she was 18 and Andrew was 22.

 

 

Andrew Buchko & Mary (Paroskai) Buchko, July 5. 1913.

 

Some of my earliest memories of my grandparents would probably be spending weekends at their home.  My grandfather loved to garden.  His backyard was full of beautiful flowers everywhere.  Their home was spotlessly clean.  You could eat off the floor.  They even cleaned the basement and the street in front of their house!  They had a small home on the west side of Cleveland -- 2 bedrooms and 1 bath upstairs, a kitchen, dining room and living room downstairs. 

 

 

 The house in I grew up-on 3 acres of land

 

Baba was a great cook.  She made everything from scratch, even the noodles for her chicken noodle soup.  After my grandmother (Mary) died, my grandfather moved in with my Mom and Dad for a while and we sold my grandparent's house.  I was active in the real estate business and helped sell the place.  As my grandfather's health failed, we had to put him into a nursing home.  My Dad visited him every day.  The sad thing is that my father died before his father.  My Dad was only 64 and his father lived to 92, I think, living at least 5 years beyond my father's death.

 

 

Andrew Buchko & Mary (Paroskai) Buchko, John Buchko at my brother's wedding in the 70's

 

 

When my mother's health failed, she sold her home and I sold mine and the three (my husband, Gary too) moved into a new home together. 

 

The old documents I have show slightly differently spelling of some of the names.  I guess they were "Americanized."

 

I have always lived in the Cleveland area -- east side of the city.  My grandparents lived on the west side.  Cleveland is divided by the Cuyahoga River and for some reason is like two different cities.  Blue collar workers are associated with the west side and white collar workers with the east side.  I have lived in quite a few suburbs, but always in the greater Cleveland area.  My father, John, grew up poor and decided at a young age that if he wanted to make anything out of his life, that he had to do it himself.  He hated working as a child in his parent's grocery store.  Dad put himself through college, became a Certified Public Accountant, and opened his own Certified Public Accountant's office in downtown Cleveland, which he ran for years. 

 

 

John Buchko & Ivadell (Milburn) Buchko-wedding Oct. 1942

 

Then in 1945 he and two of his friends formed a sheet metal factory business.  This was just before I was born.  They did sheet metal fabricating for companies all over the country and kept the business going until he died.  Then it was sold. 

 

I have a box full of old pictures.  Some have writing on the back, but I can't read it.  For example, one is from Novi Sad in 1962 signed by Amalki.   Is that a relative of yours?  The back says "To dva cerkvi ocoh Kapucinoh u varosii Rijeka na Jadranskim Morju.  Hornji drvcri to jcdna cerkva, a dolnji to druha.  Bars krasnjc z nuka.  Buli zme tam v _jecce.  Mila moja ando Vam jvosilam sliku od."  A few of the letters are not clear, but perhaps you can figure out the message.

 

 

Gary Candow, Ivadell (Buchko) Candow  & Gary`s grandson Dalyn

 

I will close now, but I have so much more to share. Just imagine, while I was sitting in Slovenia near Lake Bled trying to translate my grandparent's old documents (wedding, birth, naturalization), you were trying to find me!  

 

 

 

 

Copyright © 2007 Paroškaj Miroslav, All Rights Reserved